Carly
by AbsentFromReality
Summary: Lassiter is just about had it with life; it feels like he just can't win. But a second before he makes everything bad in his life stop for good, he hears a small knock on his door. It's a young girl named Carly who is covered in bruises and blood. Now Lassiter has to find who tried to kill Carly and figure out who the mysterious John Doe is before time runs out and more people die.
1. John Doe

**A/N: So this is my first Psych fic! I'm 'psych'ed to see how it goes ;) LOL. Anyways, here's a few things to know before you began to read this:**

**1. Shawn & Juliet aren't a couple... yet. **

**2. This isn't set at a specific time in the show, but Marlowe is mentioned.**

**3. This deals with suicidal and depressing thoughts later on. Not the main point of this story though. **

**4. Lassiter is the main character, but obviously everyone else will be almost equally mentioned. **

**Enjoy & leave a review if you want to. :)**

* * *

~Monday~

Lassiter woke up to his alarm clock blaring loudly at eight o'clock precisely. After slamming down on the button to shut it up, he quickly jumped out of bed and stretched.

It was a typical monday morning for Carlton Lassiter; waking up alone, no breakfast cooked and waiting for him in the kitchen, and nothing to look forward to. Sure he had Marlowe for awhile, but not long after she had been released from prison did Lassiter notice some significant changes in her. She was extremely violent and would be gone for days at a time without saying a word about who or why or where she was. He hated himself for letting her go, but it was for the best.

After grabbing a banana to eat on the way to work, Lassiter jumped in his Ford Fusion and began to drive.

...

"Good morning Carlton." Juliet O'Hara beamed at her partner.

Lassiter nodded his head and sat down at his desk. He wanted to get up and go get a cup of coffee, but Shawn and Gus were already standing by it. God knows that he wouldn't willingly strike up a conversation with them.

"Lassiter and O'Hara, in my office please." Chief Karen Vick called out from behind her office door.

Lassiter and O'Hara both got up at the same time and walked into the Chief's office.

"I've got a case for you two." Chief Vick began. "It involves a John Doe. There's no wallet or any type of I.D on him. Woody estimates that he's in his early fifties and died from a couple blunt forces to the head. A group of women running in the Santa Barbara National Park found him lying on a bench out in the open around 6:30 this morning."

Lassiter studied the man intently, wondering why he looked so familiar. The man had a lot of hair for a man of his age. The brown curls were in an afro-like style; but matted from dried dark blood. His green eyes were still open and his pupils were somewhat dilated. A tiny smile was on his lips; not a creepy one, but a hopeful one. Besides being extremely tall and skinny, his overall health had appeared to be fine prior to his death. Although his skin looked like it hadn't seen sunlight in years; it could just be because he hadn't been alive in awhile. But something else was bothering Lassiter more than anything; the familiarity of this man. He felt as if he'd seen those eyes and smile before. Was it weird that the dead guy was smiling? Yeah, just a little bit.

"I need you and O'Hara to check out the park and see if you can find anything unusual. The bench is surrounded by tape along with some officers. Go and meet them now." Chief Vick smiled and sent the two on their way out of the office.

Lassiter and O'Hara took his car and drove to the park in almost complete silence. Thankfully, when they walked out of the chief's office, Shawn and Gus were nowhere in sight.

"They're over there." O'Hara pointed in the only direction that Lassiter hadn't looked in yet as if she read his mind.

"Of course." Lassiter furrowed his brow and continued to make his way toward the bench.

Lassiter inspected the crime scene as he had the man. There was a pool of blood at the edge of the bench where his head had obviously laid along with a few drops on the ground below it. There were no murder weapons on the scene as far as he could tell and no witnesses besides the ladies in the park. All he could do at the moment was interview each of the ladies back at the station.

"Lassie! Jules!" Shawn called from behind Lassiter, causing him to jump slightly.

"Spencer and Guster, step back. This is a crime scene. Unless you have something 'psychically' to tell me, sram." Lassiter was in no mood to play games.

"I was just going to tell you that there are bloody handcuffs in the garbage can over there." Shawn held up his hands to show his innocence.

"W-What, really?" Lassiter was stunned. Why hadn't he checked the garbage cans?

Shawn and Gus nodded while Lassiter and O'Hara made their way to said garbage can.

"Good work guys. Hopefully some prints will show up on this." O'Hara smiled at the two despite noticing how pissed off Lassiter was as she picked up the hand cuffs with her gloves and sat them in a ziplock baggie.

"Let's just leave." Lassiter sighed; defeated.

O'Hara shrugged and plopped herself down on the passenger side of the vehicle. It wasn't uncommon for Lassiter to survey a scene and form a conclusion in under five minutes.

"Anything else?" O'Hara asked Shawn before the two drove away.

"No, but I don't think the cuffs were on the man. At least not both cuffs. I mean I haven't physically seen him; but one of the cuffs was closed waaaay too tight to fit on a man's wrist." Shawn put lifted his hand up to his temple while squinting.

"Thanks Shawn." O'Hara smiled and kept a mental note of that.

Lassiter rolled his eyes and scurried off onto the road.

"Do you think any prints will show up?" O'Hara asked the lead detective; not wanting another quiet and awkward car ride.

"Most likely. I mean what kind of idiot throws bloody handcuffs away in a park?" Lassiter replied, turning his wheel harshly to the right to avoid hitting an old woman. "Watch out grandma!"

O'Hara caught her breath and decided to just ignore what had just happened.

"What do you think about Shawn's theory?" O'Hara asked while she closed her eyes and laid back against her chair.

"I haven't gotten a good enough look at the handcuffs yet. But if he is on to something, do we need to search for a second body or what?" Lassiter wasn't directing his question to his partner, but instead just thinking out loud.

O'Hara thought for a moment. She hadn't even thought about that yet. "Yeah, maybe."

"If there is a second body, why not dispose of it like the other guy was? Why only leave one body for us to find?" Lassiter swerved sharply again and received numerous honks from other nearby cars.

"Maybe whoever did this was trying to throw us off. Maybe we were supposed to find the handcuffs. Who knows?" O'Hara commented as she tried to hide her face away from the window.

Lassiter grunted in agreement. The rest of the car ride back to the station was as it was before.


	2. The Four Ladies

**A/N- The first few chapters of this story are going to be somewhat short; between 1,000-2,000 words. Once the plot is established, the chapters will become longer. :)**

**ATTENTION: Carly hasn't been introduced yet and she doesn't come in until a little bit later. Lassiter is not her father. But- I can't tell you anything else. It'll spoil some surprises. ;) **

* * *

"Did either one of you find anything useful from the crime scene?" Chief Vick greeted O'Hara and Lassiter at the front door of the station.

"Well actually..." O'Hara started before she caught a look from Lassiter. "We found these handcuffs in a nearby trash can. There's blood and hopefully prints on them."

"Good job, O'Hara and Lassiter." Chief Vick smiled and took the ziplock baggie from O'Hara's hand. "Three of the ladies are over there in the waiting room being watched by McNab. The youngest one is downstairs in the interrogation room."

The two quickly made their way downstairs.

"You wanna talk to two of them and I'll talk to the the other two?" O'Hara asked as she noticed how impatient Lassiter seemed to be.

"Whatever." Lassiter rolled his eyes and knocked into O'Hara as he opened the door to talk to the woman.

"Hello. I'm Carlton Lassiter, head detective of the SBPD. And you are?" Lassiter tried his best to smile; this woman was absolutely gorgeous.

"Hello." The skinny woman with long curly blonde hair flashed a white toothy grin. "My name is Tiffany Gould."

"That's a pretty name. You want to describe to me exactly what you remember seeing when you first saw the body?" Lassiter would love to keep complimenting the woman, but he could already feel O'Hara glaring daggers at him and business would always come first.

"Thank you. Um, my group and I were jogging in the park like we do every monday morning from five to seven and at about six thirty, we started to slow down so we could take a water break. I wasn't the first one to notice the body; Gladys was. She's the woman upstairs who has short gray hair. I had my back turned against the body when I heard her scream. I turned around and all of the other three ladies were staring in his direction." Tiffany talked quickly; as if she didn't want to talk about any of it. "I called 911 and waited until they arrived."

"That was a good idea to wait. Currently, your group and a possible item related to the death of the man is all we have so far." Lassiter spoke quietly, hoping O'Hara didn't hear him giving a witness so much sensitive information.

A loud bang was heard against the glass causing both Lassiter and Tiffany to jump.

Tiffany giggled slightly and smiled.

"Anything else?" Lassiter asked, hoping the woman would just talk a little while longer.

"Hm, no. Well actually, even though it was dark out, the man's head looked like it was still bleeding when we found him but I'm not sure." Tiffany continued as she twirled a blonde curl around her finger. "He might have just been laid there not long before we arrived."

"Thank you so much for that useful information." Lassiter said with a half smile. He hoped that she didn't think he was being sarcastic or something.

"You're welcome. I'm sorry that's all I know. I wish I could've been a better help." Tiffany looked down at the ground and sighed.

"Nonsense. You helped enough." Lassiter replied as he stood up and held the door open for Tiffany. "Send Gladys down please."

"Will do, Carlton Lassiter." Tiffany giggled and trotted up the stairs.

"Unbelievable. I wish I could legally shoot you in the foot." O'Hara huffed and pushed Lassiter out of her way. "Next one is mine."

Lassiter stood there with his mouth open; what did he do?

Lassiter looked up when he heard loud footsteps coming down the steps. Gladys was a bigger woman, wearing huge black sweat pants and a tight fitting tank top that showed more than anyone would ask for.

"Right in there." Lassiter pointed to the room and shut the door after the woman sat down across from O'Hara.

"I'm detective Juliet O'Hara. What's your name?" O'Hara gave her best smile.

"Gladys. Gladys Weaver." Gladys said slowly; obviously nervous and confused.

"Well Gladys, can you tell me what you saw this morning in the park?" O'Hara asked calmly while still smiling.

"Can you stop smiling at me like that? It's making me very uncomfortable." Gladys asked while looking away from Juliet's face.

"S-Sure." O'Hara was dumbstruck and turned red when she heard Lassiter cough loudly.

"I was jogging in the park this morning with some girlfriends and they weren't really paying attention to anything except to whoever was talking at the moment. I tend to zone out sometimes. All I heard was someone ask for a water break, so we all stopped for a minute. Something moved quickly and it caught my eye, so I looked near the bench, by a rose bush. I thought maybe I'd see a deer or rabbit, but I didn't see anything. Next thing I looked at was the bench and saw the man. My eyesight isn't that good, and I don't run with my glasses on, so I didn't notice that he was bleeding until a few seconds later and I screamed." Gladys spoke with more confidence this time, but with shame as well.

"You sound... sad about something. What else did you see?" O'Hara watched and listened to the woman intently.

"Nothing else. I just keep thinking that the rustle in the bush might have been the killer and if I could see better, I might have seen some clues to who it was. I feel terrible." Gladys continued to look away from O'Hara's gaze.

"It's not your fault ma'am. Your information will help tremendously." O'Hara tried to reassure the woman.

"May I go now?" Gladys asked quickly; not wanting to spend one extra second in this room that she didn't have to.

"Uh, yeah. Send down another woman please." O'Hara nodded and followed the woman out of the room.

O'Hara sighed and held her head in her hands. After holding this position for about ten seconds, she looked up and held the door open for Lassiter. Lassiter looked at her smugly and sat down to straighten out his bright red tie.

"Hi, Kelly Williams. I'm legally blind, just to let you know." A tall, dark skinned woman walked into the room without bumping into anything and felt around for an open chair.

"Right here." O'Hara waddled the woman towards the chair and almost tripped over her 'seeing stick'.

Lassiter shooed her away, and without making a sound, silently argued with O'Hara on whether or not she needed to be questioned. Eventually, O'Hara gave up and closed the door behind her.

"I'm Carlton Lassiter. It's nice to meet you." Lassiter held his hand out, feeling it was appropriate for once.

Before he could take that hand and smack himself in the face with it, the woman reached out and shook his hand.

"Don't be freaked out. I can kind of hear where people move, if that makes sense." Kelly chuckled and withdrew her hand.

"That's amazing actually." Lassiter complimented the middle aged woman. "Now, can you tell me anything you might have heard or... _heard_ this morning when the body was discovered?"

"I remember hearing six pairs of footsteps. I know four pairs belonged to me and our group. The other two weren't exactly close to us; but distant and irregular. It sounded like two big, buff people walking close to us then farther away, then closer again. I asked if anybody was near us in the park after we called the cops, but the group told me that nobody was in sight." Kelly looked embarrassed, but Lassiter reassured her by patting her hands a few times. "I know it's not much, but maybe two people killed this man. Or at least there's two people involved."

"Thank you very much Ms. Williams. I'll lead you back to the steps." Lassiter stood up, grabbed the blushing woman's hand, and walked out of the interrogation room.

"You have a sweet voice and kind hands." Kelly told the head detective as she made her way up the steps without missing a beat. "I hope those go to good use."

Lassiter blinked in surprise. He was not expecting that.

O'Hara saw this as her opportunity to embarrass Lassiter, but she couldn't think of anything to say.

"Too late; moment's gone." Lassiter smiled at O'Hara and patted her on the head.

"Don't touch me." O'Hara spat as she walked to the end of the steps and began to walk up them. "Great, you forgot to ask for the last woman."

"No, I'm right here." A tiny, red haired woman walked down the stairs and passed Juliet.

"Oh! I'm sorry ma'am." O'Hara stepped down and showed her into the room. "What's your name?"

"Shelby Harrison." The woman sat down and crossed her legs.

"Hello, I'm Juliet O'Hara and that is my partner out there, Carlton Lassiter." O'Hara replied as she too crossed her legs. "What did you see this morning?"

"Honestly, I saw nothing expect for a dead guy lying sideways on a bloody park bench. I looked when Gladys screamed and almost fainted. I don't do blood. I only stayed with the group to wait for the police because they didn't want me leaving alone." Shelby explained while looking at her bright pink nails up close.

"Anything else?" O'Hara asked as she watched the woman sigh.

"Nope." Shelby answered, looking bored out of her mind.

"Uh, that was still helpful. Thank you for your information." O'Hara was surprised that this woman didn't have anything to add. "You and your friends can leave now."

"Thanks." Shelby smiled and shook O'Hara's hand. "I hope they find whoever killed that man."

O'Hara nodded, held open the door for the woman, and watched her disappear up the stairs.

"I think this was the easiest day I've had in awhile." O'Hara shrugged and looked up at Lassiter. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking about how weird it is that the very last woman knew nothing when every other one knew a little more than the previous woman." Lassiter scratched his head; still slightly lost in thought.

"Yeah, but that could have been pure coincidence." O'Hara replied as she turned the lights off in the basement and let Lassiter walk in front of her.

"Yeah, maybe. Let's just hope that those handcuffs come up with more than we did." Lassiter made his way to his desk to wait for the lab results.

"If not, I'm not sure what our next move is." O'Hara said depressingly as she shifted through some papers that were laid on top of her keyboard.

Lassiter nodded, not really listening because he was already lost in the random paperwork stacked high on his desk and around his computer.


	3. Shawn's Realization

A/N- yay; more Shawn and Gus. 3

lemme know how you're liking this story please ! :)

* * *

*A few hours later*

"Lassiter and O'Hara, we've got prints and DNA. In my office please." Chief Vick poked her head around her office door looking flustered.

"That's great! Do they match with our John Doe?" O'Hara asked a little bit too excitedly.

Lassiter and O'Hara already had the man's prints ran in the system earlier and didn't get any matches from anywhere. It was as if this man never existed. They had also checked in the Missing files and came up with nobody matching the description of the man.

"No, they don't. The prints aren't in any databases either." Chief Vick crossed her arms and looked out the window. "This case is going to be a hard one."

"What about the blood? Match with John Doe or no?" Lassiter asked with what little hope he had left inside of him.

"Nope." Chief grunted in frustration.

The room grew silent except for the small chatter right outside the office.

"We aren't sure what to do next." O'Hara blurted out to break the silence.

"I guess we're just going to have to put it away for awhile until new evidence comes up." Chief Vick shrugged as she sat down in her chair. "I'll call you two back in when another case is brought to my attention. Have a nice rest of the day."

"You too, Chief." O'Hara smiled and walked back to her desk.

Lassiter turned around and glared at the demon sitting in _his_ chair at _his_ desk.

"Lassie, Jules, I sensed you might need my help." Shawn Spencer smirked.

"Get up Spencer before I shoot you." Lassiter said with a serious look on his face.

"Alright. But Gus and I wish to offer our help to you on this case." Shawn stood up and pointed to Gus, who was sitting in the waiting room pretending to mind his own business.

"How did you-." Lassiter began to argue, but quickly decided that it wasn't worth it. "You know what? I don't care. If you have anything to tell us, hurry up and talk."

"Well before I found the handcuffs-." Shawn started before being cut off by Gus.

"Excuse me? I smelt jerk chicken and looked in the garbage can to see if that's where it was coming from, and then I saw the handcuffs." Gus pushed Shawn slightly. "Come on, son."

"Fine. Before _Gus_ found the handcuffs, I sensed that we were being watched. I looked around and didn't see anybody, but I remember hearing someone whispering. It sounded weak, but still, there was nobody around. Then the group of ladies came around the corner and screamed. Gus and I got closer, but then we hid. After the police arrived, we came back out." Shawn explained truthfully for once in his life. "That's when we first saw the dead guy."

"That woman is truly talented." Lassiter leaned over and whispered in O'Hara's ear; referring to the blind woman from earlier.

"I am not a woman. But thanks for the compliment." Shawn pretended to look hurt and Juliet giggled.

"Shut up Spencer. I wasn't talking about you." Lassiter rolled his eyes.

"Wait, a whisper? Did it sound like a man or woman?" O'Hara asked Spencer curiously.

"It wasn't a man's voice, but it didn't really sound like a woman's either." Shawn squinted his eyes and tried to remember.

Lassiter face palmed himself and looked up Shawn with frustrated eyes.

"Why were you in the park so early in the morning anyways?" Lassiter wondered out loud.

"I can answer that. Shawn and I are training for the Santa Barbara 10k." Gus proclaimed proudly.

"That's like, a mile or two right?" Shawn asked Gus quietly.

"What? No Shawn. It's over six miles." Gus shook his head.

Shawn opened his mouth to say something then closed it.

"Leave before I force you out." Lassiter was growing highly impatient and just wanted to sit down and work.

"Okay fine. I'll come back if we find anything else out." Shawn and Gus hurriedly walked away and hid behind the wall.

Lassiter would normally call for McNab to escort them off of the premises, but he couldn't really care less about them at the moment. He wasn't sure why he didn't want to tell anyone that the man was familiar to him, but he was more bothered by the fact that he still had no idea who he was.

...

Shawn and Gus snuck off to go visit Woody to get a look at the body. The first thing Shawn noticed was the small smile on the man's face. It wasn't exactly creepy; it looked as if he maybe died happy or something of that sort. His eyes were a bright blue; the only thing on his body with any color left if you didn't count the blood.

"How did he die Woody?" Shawn asked the coroner while waving Gus back into the room.

"I'm not coming any closer to that body Shawn." Gus shook his head and held his nose.

Shawn gave him a look that eventually got Gus close enough to see the dead man's face.

"Besides being malnourished, three blunt blows to the left side of his head that crushed his skull and caused him to slowly bleed to death. My guess is that he did not die instantly and probably suffered in a great deal of pain." Woody replied with a sad look on his face. "Poor guy."

"Then why is he smiling? That's creepy." Gus asked and looked in a different direction.

"I have no idea. That's a good question." Woody commented and leaned in to get a closer look at the man's face.

Shawn gasped when he realized something.

"Dude, he kinda looks like Lassie!" Shawn exclaimed loudly, startling both Woody and Gus.

Gus and Woody both studied the man and agreed with Shawn.

"Now that (italics) is creepy." Gus shrieked. "They even have the same eye color."

"Huh." Woody grunted and squinted his eyes a tad. "Should we tell Lassiter?"

"Nah. It'll just piss him off." Shawn shrugged his shoulders. "I'm hungry Gus. Let's go get tacos from that nice señor with the cart outside of our office.

"You know that's right." Gus fist pumped Shawn as they both made their way out of the morgue.

...

"Goodnight Lassiter." O'Hara waved goodbye, grabbed her black coach purse, slung it over her shoulder, and walked out the front door of the station.

"Night." Lassiter replied sluggishly.

Lassiter scratched his head and glanced at his watch. His and O'Hara's shifts had ended a few hours ago, but they had stayed after filing some paperwork. It was okay though because he was in no rush to go home and be alone.

Another hour passed and Lassiter decided that it was time to get up and go home. He wished that he could close his eyes for a couple seconds and when he opened them, it would be the next morning. Nights were just always bitterly depressing.

On the way home, Lassiter thought about the case. Not knowing the name of the man or who the prints belonged to was irritating and made the case so much more difficult. They would never find out who the killer was if they didn't know whose prints were who. Lassiter slowly began to think even more negatively. He thought about how much he wished that he was the dead guy. He would definitely give the man his life if he could. Besides, nobody would miss him, right? Lassiter shook his head slightly. He hated when thoughts like that popped up in his head and wouldn't go away.

After parking in his driveway and grabbing his insomnia pills with a glass of water, he decided to head to bed. The quicker it was morning, the better.


	4. Hired

**A/N- Am I the only person that absolutely HATES* that Marlowe and Lassiter are getting married? Like they are cute together and all, but I like Lassiter waaaay better grumpy and hilarious, not all joyful and cheery. I loved the wedding episode though! It was just so adorable. I just miss the way Psych used to be; not with everyone paired off with someone. Even Shules gets on my nerves sometimes. But oh well; as long as they keep making episodes; I'll be happy. :)**

* * *

~Tuesday~

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

Lassiter opened his eyes slowly and shielded his eyes from the sun shining in brightly from the window on his left. After yawning and stretching, Lassiter quickly hopped out of his lonely bed. His stomach growled for food, so he made his way into the kitchen to eat a bowl of cereal. He poured a bowl of cereal and plopped down on his black leather couch to watch the new for a few minutes.

"Investigators still aren't sure what the man's name is. If anyone has any information regarding to the identity of the man or how he died, you should call the SBPD immediately." An older red headed woman said as she shuffled some papers in her hands.

A sketch of the John Doe was shown for about twenty seconds before the lady began to talk about another news story. Lassiter used his TiVo to rewind the tv and freeze it to the portrait of the man. It was scary how familiar he was.

Lassiter finished his cheerios and walked back to his bedroom to pick out a suit. After flipping through his closet twice, he decided on an all black suit complete with a dark purple tie. He hadn't worn it in months, and change was good. At least, that's what he kept telling himself.

* * *

"Lassiter, you look handsome today." O'Hara smiled and handed Lassiter two files. "Chief wants us to look over these and make sure they are all written up correctly as they told us and nothing was left out."

Lassiter opened one and began to skim over it. It was Shelby, the blind one's written report on the incident at the park. Lassiter then closed it and opened up Gladys. Hers was correct as well.

"Both reports appear to be correct." Lassiter told his partner.

"Same here. I really hope some new evidence comes up soon." O'Hara huffed a breath and walked into the chief's office.

Lassiter tapped his fingers on his desk in a quick rhythm and thought about what he could do today. Besides finding out more about the John Doe, he had already finished all paperwork that he could do. It's good that nobody has come up murdered last night or this morning, but since there wasn't, Lassiter had nothing to do for the day.

"Good morning Lassie." Shawn bellowed; causing the zoned out man to snap back into reality and almost fall out of his chair. "You look sharp today. Did you get a haircut?"

Lassiter rolled his chair back towards his desk and ignored the two parasites still standing behind him.

Shawn looked at Gus curiously; normally Lassiter would either yell at them or escort them out of the station by now.

"Um, Lassie?" Gus tapped Lassiter's shoulder.

Lassiter responded by thumping his head on his desk and sighing loudly. "Go away."

"Shawn! Gus! What are you guys doing here?" O'Hara asked them as she returned from the chief's office empty handed.

"Just stopping by to see if you guys have any new evidence on who the John Doe is. Or, was." Shawn cringed and smiled.

"Oh okay. No, we have prints and even blood, but still no idea on who this man is. Or was, as you put it." O'Hara rolled her eyes. "We could really use your psychic abilities on this case."

"Hmm, let me think." Shawn replied while bringing his hand to the side of his head.

"I'm wondering why Lassie hasn't called you an idiot or something else yet." Gus glanced at Lassiter who laid almost lifeless against his desk.

Lassiter grunted but remained still.

"I'm sensing that this man was held hostage or against his will before he was killed." Shawn continued, ignoring Gus.

"That's basically the same thing." Gus gave Shawn a look. "If you're being held hostage, you're being held against your will and-."

"Shut up." Shawn put his hand in his best friend's face.

Gus licked Shawn's hand and crossed his arms afterwards smugly.

"Your hand tastes like what a skunk smells like." Gus replied disgustedly.

Shawn mouthed some words silently and continued talking with his eyes closed.

"I think he was held captive for awhile. I can see him walking-alive-with tanned skin. As I recall, the man was white as snow?" Shawn opened his left eye and waited for a nod from Juliet.

"Oh, and he looks a lot like Lassie." Gus chimed in.

"Gus! Dude! I was just about to envision that." Shawn whined and scrunched up his face.

"Um, what?" Lassiter rose up and looked up at Shawn questionably.

"Yeah. The man looks like an older you." Shawn shrugged and kept a glare at Gus.

"You're ridiculous." Lassiter flopped his head back on the desk.

O'Hara shook her head at Shawn and Gus.

"Not what I had in mind." Juliet rolled her blue eyes. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd like to hire you to help us on this case."

Lassiter wanted to protest, but he simply didn't have the motivation to lift his head up and instead grunted like he had before.

Shawn and Gus exchanged worried glances before agreeing to take on this case.

"Follow me, I'll show you the body and the case files." O'Hara led the way towards where Woody worked.

Lassiter decided to stay behind and take a little nap.

* * *

"That's all we know." O'Hara concluded after saying everything she and Lassiter knew about the man; which only took about thirty seconds.

"Okay Jules; we're on it. We'll do whatever it takes to find out this guy's name and his murderer's name." Shawn smiled at O'Hara as he pretended to not hear Gus making retching noises and sniffling.

"Do what you gotta do Shawn." O'Hara flashed a look at Gus and walked back up to Lassiter.

"Oh and by the way, you guys see those scratch marks around the neck?" Woody asked and pointed to the source. "Well I think the cause of death wasn't the head injury, but the lack of oxygen that was sent to the brain from strangulation. If I'm correct, he was dead before the head injury. Don't tell the chief that I changed my mind."

Gus looked at Woody sideways.

"Wait, then why would someone hit him in the head if he was already dead?" Shawn asked curiously.

"I'm not sure. Maybe they weren't sure if he was dead or not." Woody shrugged and walked back to his working space. "You guys want some chips?"

"Man, what is wrong with you?" Gus shook his head and grabbed Shawn's arm. "Thanks, but we have to go now."

Woody waved goodbye while chip crumbs fell from his open mouth.

"Gus, did you see the way Lassiter reacted when we said that the man looked like him? He's definitely hiding something." Shawn asked his best friend as soon as they were out of earshot from everybody.

"Yeah, that _was_ weird." Gus shook his head.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Shawn stopped walking and smirked at Gus.

"Probably not; no." Gus started off, but continued his sentence when a sweet aroma entered his nostrils. "That smell..."

"Jerk chicken." They both said at the same time with the same grin plastered on their faces.


	5. Slight Breakdown

A/N- By now you've probably noticed that Shules is no more. YESYESYESYESYES.

... sorry Shules shippers.

hope you enjoy this short chapter anywaysss. :)

**OMG I'm so sorry for the late update! My fanfiction wouldn't let me log in for some unknown reason. **

* * *

"Lassiter, wake up." Juliet spoke quietly. "Our shifts end in like ten minutes. Get up."

Lassiter groaned as he pulled his head off of his desk. Juliet giggled as he wiped slobber off of his black jacket sleeve and around the corners of his mouth.

"How long was I asleep?" Lassiter rubbed his eyes with his hands and coughed a few times.

"I have no idea honestly." O'Hara shrugged. "You didn't miss anything at all though."

"Boring day, huh?" Lassiter stood up and straightening out the wrinkles on his suit.

"Yeah, and we still have no clue who the John Doe is or who killed him." O'Hara sighed. "Hopefully tomorrow will bring some answers."

"I hope." Lassiter replied, scooting in his chair underneath his desk.

Lassiter walked to the bathroom to splash some water on his face, but stopped when he saw his reflection staring back at him. There were bags under his eyes even though he had just taken a pretty long nap. His face gave off the vibe that he was upset, but after a couple of handfuls of water to the face, he was able to hide it a bit better. It was becoming harder and harder to mask his true feelings.

"Goodnight O'Hara." Lassiter smiled when he returned from the bathroom. "See ya tomorrow morning."

O'Hara nodded her head as she turned the corner to exit the building. Lassiter cleared his throat and grabbed a few files to take him with him to look over. As he walked towards his car, he stopped cold when he heard the sound of someone stepping on the fallen autumn leaves. Lassiter jumped and pulled his gun out to aim at his attacker all in one quick motion, but was stunned to see that nobody was there.

"If you don't come out now, don't get mad when I shoot you." Lassiter called out; showing no fear in his voice.

Lassiter held his gun up a few seconds longer before lowering it slightly. It was raised again in a moment when whispers filled his ears and more leaves were rustled.

"Who the hell are you?" Lassiter called out, now really determined to find something to shoot.

"You alright buddy?" A security guard called out and walked straight into Lassiter's line of fire.

"Damn it! I almost shot you." Lassiter lowered his gun completely and stuffed it into his back pocket.

"You sure you're okay?" The short, brunette security guard seemed bent on receiving an answer and didn't want to leave until he got one.

"I'm fine." Lassiter kept a tight lip and hopped into his car. "You just scared me. That's all."

The security guard shrugged and left the man alone.

Lassiter sighed. He felt like a total idiot and just wanted to curl up in a ball somewhere dark and alone.

...

When Lassiter opened the door to his house, the tears just came rushing out. He had no idea where they had came from; they were just there. Lassiter slid down slowly against his front door until his butt sat firmly on the ground. After bringing his knees up to his chest, he rested his head down and wrapped his arms around his knees. Hot tears kept streaming down his cold face as his head began to pound faster and faster. Lassiter felt dumb for crying in the first place, but even dumber when he couldn't get it under control.

"What's wrong with me?" Lassiter whispered out loud.

Lassiter sat against the door for another ten minutes before the crying started to die down and slowly faded away to silence. His bright blue eyes were red and puffy, but at least the tears were gone. He wasn't sure how to put it into words, but his body felt numb. Lifeless. Like he was just a soulless, walking corpse. Lassiter stood up and sniffed a few times before plopping himself on the couch. He reached for his remote which was laying in front of him on his clear glass table.

"Can't get it up anymore? Well try Viagra, it's-."

"See them live at Expo 16 this weekend only! They-."

"It's the snack that smiles-."

Lassiter grunted. "Damn commercials."

"Tired of living a repetitive, boring life?" A short bald happy man asked, looking directly into the camera with his dark brown eyes.

Lassiter stopped his index finger from clicking the channel button and listened.

"Want something, or _someone_ new in your life? Try-."

Lassiter rolled his eyes. He should have expected that. After turning off the TV, Lassiter closed his eyes and sat back against the couch. The cushions felt amazing as they molded into the perfect form to fit his body.

Still with his eyes closed, Lassiter began to think. A single tear slipped down his cheek.

_What am I doing with my life? There's nothing for me to do. Nobody to do anything with. There's no point of my existence._

Lassiter's eyes snapped open. Where the hell did all that come from? He glanced around the room. He felt off... like he was being watched or something. A bottle of Jack Daniels came into view, causing Lassiter's vision to become blurry and distorted. What was going on with him? His mind told him to stand up and go grab the bottle so he could guzzle the whole thing down in one gulp, but another part of him told him to take some sleeping pills and just go to sleep. Both sounded appealing if he was being honest with himself. Lassiter shook his head when his gaze once again fixed on the bottle of Jack. He stood up and walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water to wash down the two white pills. If he was lucky, he'd fall asleep within the next hour.

...

Lassiter laid down flat on his back and sighed. He had been staring into the darkness for about half an hour now and still wasn't sleepy. His mind was racing a mile a minute, but yet he felt so empty and bare. Images of things and situations that had been on his mind recently all flooded in at once. It bothered him that he still had no idea who the John Doe was or how he was killed or hell, who ever killed him. What if Shawn was right about him not being alone? What if there's another victim out there waiting to be rescued but will end up dead soon because Lassiter couldn't figure anything out? Lassiter felt so lonely. He had nobody to go home to and talk to about these kind of problems; and it sucked.

Another round of tears came pouring out of his bright baby blue eyes. This time though, Lassiter was too deep in thought to feel dumb about them.

Lassiter rolled onto his left side and pulled the cover up to his chin. A little part of him hoped and wished that he didn't wake up in the morning.

* * *

**A/N- I know, short and pointless chapter. Don't worry though, tomorrow will be interesting. ;)**


	6. Sneaking into Lassiter's House

**A/N- sorry it's been awhile guys... I've just lost motivation to write lately even though I've had all the time in the world to do it.**

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~Thursday~

"Carry on my wayward son; There'll be peace when you are done.

Lay your weary head to rest; Don't you cry no more!" The alarm blasted at full volume.

Lassiter jumped with his heart racing. He hadn't remembered putting his alarm on radio, let alone turning the volume up so loud. After slamming his clock so hard it fell onto the floor, Lassiter plopped his head back onto his pillow. He had such little motivation to get up and face the day. Even though nobody witnessed his little breakdown the night before, he felt embarrassed and ashamed about it. Scenes from the night before kept replaying over and over again in his mind until he just couldn't take anymore; forcing him to roll out of bed and start the day.

_Just one more day. _

...

"Alright Gus, he's out of sight. Let's just hope he remembered everything he needed for the day." Shawn popped his head out of Lassiter's bushes.

"If not, he'll kill us." Gus jumped up from a bush as well and brushed some dirt off of himself.

Since O'Hara hired Shawn to find out more on the John Doe, he figured he'd start at Lassiter's place. He was positive that the man was related to the head detective.

"Gus, since you're used to this, use this to unlock the front door." Shawn handed his best friend a bobby pin that he had stolen from O'Hara's hair the previous day.

Gus blinked in confusion a few times before focusing his gaze on Shawn.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Gus wanted to know. "Is it because-."

"Shh, you might draw even more attention to yourself. I'll keep watch." Shawn dropped the bobby pin in front of his best friend and looked in the opposite direction.

Gus smacked Shawn in the back of his head then started to pick the lock. Ten seconds later, Lassiter's front door slowly creeped open to reveal an empty house.

"I feel like the house is going to be booby trapped or something." Gus sighed while walking extremely slowly.

"We won't be here long. Unless you know, we find a dead body somewhere." Shawn shrugged his shoulders.

"Shut up Shawn."

Gus and Shawn made their way into Lassiter's bedroom to look for a photo album or any pictures hanging up on the wall. Both of them gasped slightly when they reached his bedroom.

"This isn't how I pictured Lassie's bedroom to look like." Shawn glanced around.

"Why are you thinking about what Lassiter's bedroom looks like?" Gus raised an eyebrow.

Shawn rolled his eyes. "I don't. I just pictured the room to be filled with guns on the wall and like a torture chair with blood slpattered everywhere."

"I doubt that if he would put any of that stuff out in the open." Gus replied. "Especially the torture chair."

"You never know." Shawn smirked as he opened a few drawers on Lassiter's dresser. "Where's all the family photos?"

"Maybe there aren't any. Lassie doesn't exactly seem like a family man."

"What about his mom and his... other mom? Aren't they close? He has a picture of them in his wallet."

Gus frowned as he shut the closet door. "Why do you know all these random facts about him?"

"I'm psychic Gus. It's what I do."

Gus was about to give Shawn another look when he noticed a medium sized brown leather book poking out from underneath Lassiter's bed.

"I think I found something. Here." Gus said as he picked the book up and tossed it to Shawn.

Shawn blew dust from the cover of the album off before slowly opening it. Some of the pictures had yellowed drastically but most were just dusty.

"I had no idea Lassie had such a huge family." Gus commented as he looked over Shawn's shoulder at all the pictures.

"I guess he does... wait. Does that look like the John Doe to you?" Shawn almost dropped the album.

"Oh my gosh, that has to be him. Damn, you were right." Gus took the album so he could get a better look at the man.

John Doe had his hand on a little boy's shoulder along with another man who was a only a little taller than the boy. They were all in black suits with light purple ties.

Shawn slipped the photo out of the album to flip it over to check for some names.

"Funeral with Dad and Joe." Shawn read out loud. "Aww, look at little Lassie. So innocent and non-violent looking."

"Alright, we got a name. Now let's go." Gus clapped his hands and rubbed them together before pointing out the door.

"Hang on. Who is this?" Shawn's eyes focused in on another picture a few pages away from the first one they examined. "There's Joe again holding a baby. Do you think it's Lassie?"

"Who knows and who cares. We need to get out of here. What if he has hidden cameras?" Gus looked in all ceiling corners.

Shawn wondered if Lassiter really had hidden cameras, but shook his head and pushed the book back in it's original spot.

"Alright let's go back to the Psych office to do some research." Shawn sighed.

Shawn wanted to rummage around Lassiter's house a little more before they had to go, but had decided to not to argue and agreed to leave.

"What if his last name isn't Lassiter? We'll never figure out who he is if it's not." Gus asked his best friend as they walked out of the front door.

"Well we're just gonna have to hope that it is." Shawn replied.

"I wonder when Lassie's mom realized she wasn't into dudes. Lassiter looked about seven or eight in that photo of them in the suits." Gus wondered out loud.

"Then I guess sometime after that Gus. Come on man; use your head." Shawn rolled his eyes and hopped into the passenger side of the blueberry.

Gus huffed a little before pulling out of Lassiter's driveway and drove away.

* * *

"Good morning Carlton. Did you sleep well?" O'Hara asked her partner when she passed him by the coffee maker.

"Morning." Lassiter mumbled in reply.

"Rough night?" O'Hara asked him empathetically.

Lassiter's jumped slightly, wondering if O'Hara had somehow known about what had happened last night. He was just paranoid like that.

"Yeah, I didn't get much sleep." Lassiter smiled a half smile and turned away in the opposite direction of his partner.

O'Hara furrowed her eyebrow, but let it go and walked over to Buzz.

Lassiter sat in his chair and scooted up to his desk. He yawned, took a sip of his coffee, and began to rummage through some papers that had been placed on his desk.


End file.
